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| World Muslim Conference rakes up 'K' word | | Indo-Pak ties are linked to Kashmir: Aziz | | BL KAK
NEW DELHI|JAN 16
Official Islamabad has set official New Delhi thinking anew. In fact, fresh doubts have been triggered in Delhi's power corridors. This is the outcome of the rigid stand taken by Pakistan Prime Minister, Shaukat Aziz, on New Delhi's renewed attempts to take on priority basis India's economic ties with Pakistan.
Shaukat Aziz has stated that economic ties with India are linked to progress on Kashmir. In an exclusive interview to CNN-IBN, he said that conflict resolution would hold the key to economic relations as well. Just about 48 hours after the Foreign Ministers of Pakistan and India met in Islamabad, Aziz made it clear that Pakistan will think about strengthening economic ties with India only when it sees some progress on Kashmir.
"As we see progress on Kashmir, that will determine the progress on the economic relations", he swas quoted as saying in the interview. Shaukat Aziz, who will be heading Pakistan's delegation for the SAARC Summit in April, was speaking to CNN IBN in Islamabad. He also said that the two countries had to work together if there was to be sustainable peace in the subcontinent.
Just two days back, Pakistan Foreign Minister, Kurshid Mehmood Kasuri, had also spoken in a similar voice when he said that there will be gradual improvement in trade and overall economic relations between the two countries. "In terms of trade and overall economic relations, I see a gradual improvement. It will be in consonance with other issues, in tandem with dispute resolution and as we see progress. We will see progress on economic relations", he said.
Yet another significant India-related development was allowed in Islamabad, where the National Consultative Conference on Kashmir issued a joint communiqué early this week, demanding the government that it should not give most favoured nation (MFN) status to India and rejected the idea of joint control or self-governance as a solution of the Kashmir dispute. The World Muslim Conference arranged the conference on Kashmir in which politicians of the opposition parties, political parties of the Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Kashmiris representing both factions of the All Parties Huriyat Conference PoK chapter participated.
According to reports fed to India's Foreign Office from Islamabad, speakers at the conference rejected the four-point proposals of Gen Pervez Musharraf for the solution of Kashmir issue and demanded that the Kashmir policy should be discussed in parliament in 2008 after the next general elections. They also observed that jihad should continue in the Indian-held Kashmir. The communiqué issued at the end of the conference said that any decision on the Kashmir issue must not be made without the approval of the Pak Parliament. Moreover, any proposed solution of the issue that negates the sacrifices of the "Kashmiri freedom fighters" will never be accepted, it said.
It said that joint control or self-governance was not a solution of the Kashmir issue and unfettered freedom was an inherent right of the Kashmiri people. All efforts for inalienable right of the Kashmiri people will be fully supported. "The conference salutes the perseverance of the freedom fighters and their sacrifices of the martyrs of the Kashmir freedom struggle", it noted. The conference condemned what it described as the" Indian military occupation and violation of human rights in occupied Kashmir". It urged India to display seriousness for resolving the Kashmir issue and allow the Kashmiri people to decide their future in accordance with the UN resolutions. The conference appealed to the people of Pakistan to observe Kashmir Day on February 5 in a forceful manner to express solidarity with the Kashmiris.
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